Monoloco Matasanos Hot Sauce Review

Monoloco Matasanos

Note: This sauce appears on Season 23 of The Hot Ones.

It’s hard to think of a flavor profile that would be more contrary to my palate, excluding things that actively make me physically ill, like onions. As I’ve noted, I’m not generally a fan of Indian flavorings or food, and the more forceful those particular spice blends tend to be in things, the less I find it palatable. Here, it is quite prominent and it is backed by one of the more bitter aspects I’ve run across in a sauce. This could be the superhot bitter of the Reapers, but I strongly suspect it might also be at least partly due to a mix of dry spices at play. Whatever the cause, I find great difficulty in locating enjoyment when using it.

It is immediately blazing, quite beyond what any non-chilehead will likely find either tolerable or enjoyable, so definite chilehead only territory. It was in the 9 slot on the show, which is sometimes meaningful and sometimes not, but here it is pretty reflective of the punchiness this sauce delivers. Heat-wise I found it rather pleasant, but accompanied by that bitter, that bit of enjoyment dissipated almost immediately. I half wonder if them using oil, which should create a smoothing effect, might be interfering with the integration of the dried spices somewhat, but in any case, there is a slight graininess to the sauce as well, which further doesn’t help matters. 

Where I think this would be in best use would be to add it to a sauce in the Indian style of food. I think it would work exceedingly well there blending in with the other spices and with its quite hot nature, one would not need to use a great amount of it. Obviously, that is very much not my thing, so I’m not the one to try this out, but for other chileheads who may like Indian cuisine more than me, I think they could find much to enjoy here and presumably, that would also temper the highly bitter nature of this sauce.

Bottom line: This is the second sauce from Monoloco that is very much not for me. While I found it slightly more enjoyable than the XXX (reviewed elsewhere here), it is going to be getting gone as soon as I film the Q2 2026 Wing Thing.  

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 3
            Flavor: 0
            Flexibility: 0
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 0

Overall: 1